It's greatest strength is the elimination of being taxed several times for the same thing.

The initial result of course would be an increase in price. Partially due to the tax being completely sales based, and partially due to the inevitable inflation caused when everyone suddenly goes into a spending frenzy. But all that should level out in a year or so.

I would also encourage everyone to review the FairTax, as it is only 132 pages

Only 132 pages... only???

I hate economic politics, I don't understand a word of this... could you summarize it a bit?? I think it's saying that they want to get rid of taxes on paychecks and raise taxes when people buy new things, is that right? *I think I understand Japanese better than economic talks...*

- Harumi Nessa - 熱砂 春美(Just kidding ^_^'')'Do you know what it feels like, loving someone who's in a rush to throw you away?Do you know what it feels like, to be the last one to know the lock on the door has changed?' - Enrique Iglesias <3

I linked the summary page. If you go down it has a compare the benifits link that is only 3 pages, and most of that white space.

Yes. The fair tax, as opposed to the flat tax would eliminate the IRS supposedly. I doubt that it will as there will still be a need for people to verify people are not frauding the goverment. But it will eliminate tax accountants. Which is one reason a law like this should be taken seriously. I'm studying accounting currently, luckily for me, I never considered taking up tax accounting.

In short, people are only charged when a finished product is sold for the first time. Resales, investments, and all other purchases will be untaxed. Businesses will not have to pay taxes when they purchase components to assemble into a final product, merchants will not have to pay taxes on goods bought for sale. Only the final buyer will pay taxes.

Although I doubt many businesses will be altruistic enough to pass the savings on to customers. Especially when these same customers suddenly find themselves with a larger paycheck.

Last edited by Infidel on Sun 07.02.2006 6:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ok... Yeah, sounds like a good bill. It evens out all the people getting paid under the table and such too, I think. And people wouldn't be able to cheat on their taxes... I like this idea!

- Harumi Nessa - 熱砂 春美(Just kidding ^_^'')'Do you know what it feels like, loving someone who's in a rush to throw you away?Do you know what it feels like, to be the last one to know the lock on the door has changed?' - Enrique Iglesias <3

I like the idea of an IRS free world (or at least IRS free US ). Like you said, even if the Fair Tax makes it, there will have to be some sort of governing body to make sure things go right -> 新IRS.

I saw a debate on C-Span (It wasn't that boring, really!) on this topic with Boortz (the author of the Fair Tax book) and an economic genius from the Reagan era. The Economist was actually against the Fair Tax not on principle but because he didn't think it would work as well as proponants say. (I don't remember his major points, sorry). One thing the economist mentioned that I really liked was the idea of making a tax code that is simple enough to fit on a postcard for the average American to understand and fill out himself. If we have to have an income tax, it needs to be that simple.

I really like the idea of the Fair Tax (I haven't read Boortz's book, but have read quite a lot on it), but in reality there are far too many burecrats and CPAs who would stand to lose a lot. I personally feel it would be best for all American citizens regardless of position, but what are the chances of that happening?

clay wrote: One thing the economist mentioned that I really liked was the idea of making a tax code that is simple enough to fit on a postcard for the average American to understand and fill out himself. If we have to have an income tax, it needs to be that simple.

This same discussion was had in Germany except instead of wanting to be able to figure out your taxes on postcard, some politicians wanted to be able to do it on a beer mat.